Palestine has some of the oldest olive trees in the world, dating back 4,000 years. Some families have trees that have been passed down from generation to generation.
The olive harvest season has a socio-cultural significance in that Palestinian families come together to harvest olives that their ancestors had grown from the same trees several years or centuries ago.
The Olive Tree is an essential aspect of Palestinian culture, heritage and identity and has been mentioned in the Bible, Koran and Torah. They symbolize Palestinian resilience, firmness and resistance and are deeply valued for their ability to thrive and take root deep in lands where water is scarce. Olive oil is a key product of the Palestinian national economy.
In the period between 1700 and 1900, the area around Nablus had become the main area for olive production, and olive oil was used instead of money.
Oil was stored in deep wells on the ground of the city and surrounding villages, which were then used by merchants to make payments.
By the end of the 19th century, cash crops in the region were expanding rapidly to the point that in 1914 there were 475,000 dunams of olive groves (about 47,500 hectares or 112,000 acres) in the area now occupied and the Palestinian territories.
At the end of the Ottoman period before the First World War, olive oil produced near Nablus was difficult to export because of its relatively high acidity, high price and limited shelf life.
During the British Mandate era, olive production more than doubled from the 1920s to the 1940s.
After the occupation of Palestine, Israeli forces targeted olive trees as a major form of land acquisition and began uprooting Palestinian olives in 1967, with an estimated 830,000 olive trees uprooted between 1967 and 2009.
